In
July, more than 100 professionals met in El Salvador at the international
meeting “Hospitals in Disasters: Handle with Care.” The bulk
of the meeting was dedicated to working groups that studied and made recommendations
on three major topic areas:
• Hospital disaster mitigation and the need to revise and
enforce existing regulations concerning the design and construction of
health facilities, with the ultimate goal of protecting the lives of patients,
staff and other occupants and ensuring that these facilities can continue
to function during and after a disaster. This working group discussed
and modified the Guidelines for Vulnerability Reduction in the Design
of New Health Facilities, a comprehensive publication for investors and
hospital managers. A shorter
summary of this document, prepared for decision makers, is also available.

•
Evacuating a hospital may become necessary at some point. But unnecessary
evacuation can lead to serious problems, and the group analyzed the consequences
of evacuation in terms of politics, social aspects, administration, public
assistance, labor, etc. The guide Should Hospitals be Evacuated? Was endorsed
and the group formulated additional ecommendations, including: share the
decision to evacuate, to the extent possible, with health or government
authorities responsible for the affected area and keep in mind that the
press will play an important role in generating or dispelling fears about
hospital evacuations.

•
If hospitals must be evacuated, many view mobile field hospitals as a
way to provide
immediate medical care to victims. Some political authorities in disaster
affected countries have accepted the donation of self contained field
hospitals as a temporary substitute for health facilities damaged by disasters.
However, often these foreign hospitals have not met the expectations,
generating frustration and disappointment for all parties concerned:

recipients
and donor countries, the medical staff and the patients. The WHO/PAHO
Guidelines for the Use of Field Hospitals in the Aftermath of Sudden Impact
Disasters, prepared for donor and recipient countries, were revised by
the group and have now been published.